Integrally Motorsport James Hancock/Rob Scott 025 - 377 921 Sponsors Strong for Honda Onlinemotorsport.net Wally Elders Garage Round Five of the Winger Subaru Rally Series was contested at the Bay Rally. Hosted by Auck Uni and Whakatane Car Clubs the event took a large number of crews over mainly forestry roads with a couple of county roads as a teaser. We got through scruitineering and Documentation. Once again I’d talked Rob Scott into sitting beside me for an afternoon of fun in the sun, Rob went through the notes while I put a few last minute signwriting jobs to rest and off to bed. Saturday morning I got over to Whakatane with Rob ,Pete, Jamie, Erin and Hooman our friend from Iran, we got just about everything we wanted, nothing was a problem. My recent graduation from bad tyre choices 101 course really paid for it’s self as we put on some half worn S505’s, (Picture a 3 legged dog on polished lyno floor then put eggs on it), we lost 5 secs to Woody, I would not normally have been concerned about that but when he told me he’d spun twice on the stage I knew it was pretty bad. Stanley road is a great road with some awesome corners but we got absolutely pummeled. The car had a huge vibration, no grip, no rear bias and a bad attitude that no amount of  revs would fix. We serviced and tried to work out what the hell was going on, We bled all the brakes, searched (with the help of Dave Strong, thanks Dave) for the source of the vibrations, changed the worn Silverstones to some Kayne Barrie specials and repeated the stage from the other end. I didn’t want to push too hard because if we crashed here, then we may not be ready for Hamilton, hence we’d loose our class position. Any way too much thinkiing went on, I got back into the swing of things and tied with woody, much happier with that. That was the end of the days rally, a pity the club couldn’t use the Ohope Hill Rd. I took out the lads for a meal and then off to bed to have hundreds of dreams about CV’s tearing apart, broken wheel studs and bonnets with strut holes in them. when I woke up very little changed, We drove around all day in the pouring rain bashing the living crap out of a 15 year old chassis on some of NZ’s best goat tracks, I’d have to say though it was a good time, it really kept you on your toes. I love driving in the rain, I love ruts, I love bumps and I love corners that are covered in greasey wet clay, NOT ! Still, when the conditions are like that it makes it more of a challenge. The rain continued all day, eased off towards the end, Rob did an awesome job of the notes considerering the inside if the Integra was like a wet towel in a tumble drier. Woody crashed his 6spd Corolla on a very very slippy corner, that would have caught us out if we hadn’t seen Peter Leith waving us down. Cheers Pete and Woody for the competition and very relieved to see it was only the car that was damaged. Dave Strong and Grant Liston were on fire, both going for the National 2wd Club championship they put in some damb good times for 2wd vehicles in what was really a 4wd rally. We finished in 23rd position, 2nd in class which ultimately gave us enough points for the 1600cc class win and 4th in the 2wd club championships, I was feeling pretty good about that, especally as it was our first attempt at either championship. There was just one rally left in the top half championship, the GVI rally of Waitomo. Common sence would tell you we didn’t need to do it, but we did it anyway :)

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